Why the Houston Rockets are still struggling with rebounding

Despite the rebounding efforts of Christian Wood and DeMarcus Cousins, the Houston Rockets are still struggling on the boards, for several reasons.

With the acquisition of Christian Wood and DeMarcus Cousins, both 6’10 centers, it was thought in the offseason that the Houston Rockets would not face the same rebounding woes that they did when they embraced last season’s micro-ball approach. However, they are still amongst the league’s worst rebounding teams.

Though it is important to note that it is still early in the season, the Rockets are currently ranked at a tie for the 27th spot in the league as it pertains to rebounds per game. They have also been outrebounded in most of their games so far, some with double-digit deficits.

Amongst several other things, this is having a clear effect on their ability to win games, as the only games they have won have seen relatively low discrepancies in rebounding. In their win against the Magic, they outrebounded the Magic by six, while in their two wins against the Kings, they grabbed four more rebounds in one game and were only outrebounded by two in the other.

In Tuesday night’s loss to the Lakers, a poor rebounding performance resulted in the Lakers getting 23 second-chance points, as the Rockets were outrebounded by 13 boards. It is tough for any team to win a game when giving up that much in second-chance points.

If the Rockets are going to have a chance at turning around their season, they’ll have to identify the cause of their issues on the glass, which I’ll explain.

Next: Reason #2